


Vodka and Vanilla Kisses

by AryThePianoGal



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: #AU, #college, #collegeau, #drinking, #harley is kinda an emo, #harleykeener, #nicknames, #party, #peter in makeup, #peter is a soft boi, #peterparker - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-08-19 10:04:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20207944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AryThePianoGal/pseuds/AryThePianoGal
Summary: Harley is awestruck by the idea of a story that means something, and a pretty boy with curly brown hair at a party.(Implied college au)





	1. Chapter 1

Harley hadn’t ever seen anyone move with as much grace as the curly brown haired boy on the dance floor, the music was something he didn’t one hundred percent recognize; this whole house wasn’t something he’d ever seen in Rose Hill. There was definitely no one like the boy who was moving, almost as if he was a puppet to music playing off someone’s speaker someone where, Harley was moving forward in a near haze to get closer to the boy.   
There was just something about the way he moved, the way his neck looked when he tilted his head back, his eyes closed, eyelashes so long they almost touched his cheek. Just looking at him was making Harley’s heartache, he was painstakingly beautiful; something sculpted straight from the renaissance era.   
He moved in time to the boy when he reached him, being near him was enough to make his body feels lighter, and he was able to fall in with his movements easily. The boy’s plump pink lips were curling upwards into a smile, and he opened his eyes to reveal warm chocolate orbs glittering up at him.   
Harley knew the second he walked into this party that he was going to fall helplessly in love with someone, it was the vibe of it. The fairy lights strung around each room, the polaroids that were plastered to the walls and the music which made his soul feel like it wanted to cry and dance at the same time. It was the place to fall in love with someone. To the tempo of an indie song he hadn’t ever heard of before, in a house he wasn’t really sure who it belonged to, at a party he wasn’t really sure how he had gotten here in the first place. The boy slipped his arms around Harley’s waist, pulling their bodies closer together; his eyes looking up at Harley, daring him to take the next step.  
He didn’t, because despite being ready to fall in desperate love that night, he also was desperate for a sweet story, and in Harley’s world nothing good comes of kissing the pretty boy while you’re dancing; you have to get them away from the atmosphere, away from the protective bubble that parties seem to create. They push people out of themselves, and even though this boy was the most beautiful that Harley had ever seen and his looks alone were enough to make Harley fall head over heels; he needed this kiss to be more. To be more than just a one time story of how he went to a party, saw a beautiful boy in a house he could fall in love in, kissed him and they danced away from each other.  
Harley does take the boy’s hand though, pulling him through the clouds of smoke and out of the house, the boy is quiet and not protesting so Harley takes that as a good sign. When they’re out on the lawn, Harley can see him a little better. He’s still beautiful, god above is he still beautiful; but he can also see the things he was too distracted to see. The boy’s shirt, which has a science pun on it that Harley is definitely too intoxicated to understand at the moment, there’s makeup around the boy’s eyes too. A sweaty mess of purples,pinks and blues, glitter all across his face; his grin is a little lopsided, and his nose, though cute is a little crooked.  
“Hi,” Harley says to the boy dumbly, he only grins wider.  
“Hey there princess,” Harley feels like he could melt right there, and his silly idea of a story that means something dwindling just because he wants to kiss this boy so badly.  
“I’m Harley,” he offers his hand, he’s not drunk, he’d drank sure, but not enough to actually be drunk, maybe buzzed. There’s no reason for him to be so stuck in his skin and so, odd at the same time; the boy must definitely be drunk and maybe Harley is just feeling that, pulling it off the boy.   
“I know, we have Political Science together, but you’ve always got your nose in a book. I’m Peter,” he does take Harley’s hand and Harley is too distracted kicking himself for not realizing that someone this cute, this beautiful, that this force of nature had been so close to him for so long and he was so focused on-  
Peter’s lips on his are soft, everything about Peter, which looked like all harsh angles and marble, is soft, Harley melts into him. His ideas of a story are gone, and all he can feel is Peter here, the moonlight and early morning fog on their skin.   
He supposes, in a distracted sort of way, as him and Peter stumble backwards, fingers pulling at each other, hair and clothes, that this IS a story with some meaning. That he’ll always remember the way that Peter smells (like vanilla and vodka) and the way he tastes (like apples and cinnamon). That the way Peter feels against him, warm and soft, needy and cautious, is something that will always be etched in his brain.  
When they pull apart and Peter’s lips are kiss swollen and his makeup is even more messed up than it was before, he knows in his over dramatic little heart that he’s in love and he’s never going to forget this night, because, as Peter grins up at him and interlocks his fingers between Harley’s. He knows this story isn’t one that started and then immediately finished, it’s one that he’s invested in, that will play out long and sweetly.   
He leans down to kiss Peter just lightly, quickly, a middle school peck if there ever was one, but Peter still blushes.  
“Do you want to get out of here?” Harley asks, though he already knows the answer, Peter was shaking his head the second Harley opened his mouth, but still it makes him smile when Peter answers.  
“Princess, I thought you’d never ask,”


	2. Diner Food and Howard Hall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second week's prompt from parkner prompts on tumblr! This week was "closed doors"! Hopefully you like, I'm not quite sure what exactly the backstory for Peter and Harley here is, but I've apparently decided that Peter has been adopted by Tony.

Peter still looked pretty under the cheap overhead lighting the diner offered, he looked more human here than he had under the moonlight; Harley however was still slightly intimidated by the boy who was currently buttering his toast across from him. Peter looked up his warm brown eyes smiling,  
“You gonna eat or just stare at me?” he asked Harley flushed and looked down at his own plate, honestly he didn’t even remember ordering the pancakes that were placed before him, he must have been too distracted by the boy in front of him to focus on the menu, or ordering apparently. Harley glanced up to see Peter was already looking at him, a small bemused smile tugging at his kiss swollen pink lips.  
It had taken them a while to reach the diner, they’d gotten distracted, stumbling and stopping under street lights to kiss. Peter was more adventurous than Harley, and just the idea of what Peter must be like behind closed doors made Harley cough and look away briefly.  
“Did you have friends at the party?” Peter asked as he shoved a forkful of hashbrowns into his mouth, Harley shrugs as he pours syrup on his stack of pancakes, he’s trying to play it cool, though he’s not sure. He knows he’s a goner already, beside if the past twenty minutes were anything to go by, Peter at the very least was attracted to Harley enough to know his name and recognize him outside of class. There was also the kissing, the kissing was a big clue in that Peter, might, just possibly be into Harley as well.  
“Not really, I’m honestly not even sure how I got there,” Peter laughs, his crooked little nose scrunching up, Harley’s heart melts and he wants to curse whatever God there is because it’s really not fair that Peter looks this good at this late in the night, or early in the morning? Harley has honestly lost all sense of time at this point, it’s probably close to bar close, if not after if the other people stumbling into the diner are anything to go off of.  
“I get that,” Peter says “Sometimes you’re dragged to the party, and sometimes you just sort of find yourself at a party. Did you know anyone there? I don’t really see you at parties very often,” Peter said as he looked back down at his plate, Harley’s head shot up. He was looking for him at parties? Or at least noticed he wasn’t at them? He also wasn’t wrong, parties were nice sometimes, but going to too many made Harley’s skin crawl. He could only deal with large groups of people so often and parties were often too tightly packed for him to feel too comfortable.  
“Uh, no I don’t think so. My uh, roommate needed my room so I was just walking around campus.” Harley wants to kick himself as soon as he says it, he knows it sounds sad and kinda pathetic; but Peter laughs and the sound is so sweet that Harley only smiles a little embarrassed at the curly-haired boy.  
“I don’t usually have that problem, my roommate’s girlfriend goes to a different school so they usually just meet up there.” Harley nods unsure of how exactly to keep the conversation going, “You’re lucky you didn’t walk down a little farther, I hear the frat was throwing a rager,” Peter rolls his eyes at the words, and even Harley wrinkles his nose in distaste.  
“Frat parties are either a night you will never remember or a night you will never forget.” Harley says as he takes a bite of his food. Peter nods,  
“Yeah, they’re always an experience. My friend Mj hates them, thinks frats in general are just a show of the hetenormative constraints of society or whatever,” he waves his hand, but there’s a small smile on his face as he speaks of his friend.  
“Back in my hometown our only options were frat -like parties,” Harley offers,  
“Where are you originally from?” Peter asks, as he twirls the straw in his chocolate milk. (He ordered chocolate milk, how adorable is that?)  
“Rose Hill, Tennessee,” Harley replies, Peter’s eyes twinkle.  
“Country boy, I love you,” he leans forward before he sticks out his tongue “Blah,” Harley tries to keep a straight face, but he’s definitely still buzzed from whatever he’d had to drink at the party and being around Peter is an intoxicant in it’s own right.  
“Oh my god, here I was; thinking you were this cool, cute guy when you’re obviously a huge dork.” Peter’s mouth quirks into a smirk  
“Cool and cute huh?” he asks, and Harley flushes looking down at his plate,  
“Who quotes vines on a first date?” he asks, as he looks back up at Peter, Peter whose smudged makeup is glistening under the overhead lighting and has a full grin across his precious little face.  
“A first date huh? You’re a smooth one there Keener,” Peter says, his fist coming to rest against his cheek, smushing half of his face up. It’s too much to look at that Harley thinks if this boy literally gets any cuter, and softer, he’s going to have a heart attack and die.  
“I-uh. I didn’t, it's only a date if you want it to be a date.” he says finally, as he looks down at his plate again, holding his breath until Peter’s pale hand reaches over and takes his hand in his.  
“I’d really like this to be a date,” Harley finds himself grinning back, a little more shyly than Peter, but still grinning. Peter stifles a yawn on the back of his hand, and pulls out his phone  
“As fun as this has been though, I do think we should sleep eventually, we do have a paper due on Monday.” Peter says, shaking his phone at Harley, he catches a glimpse of the time and the several notifications on Peter’s phone.  
“How the hell is already four am?” Harley asks, as he digs his wallet out of his back pocket, pausing awkwardly for a second until he sees Peter pull out his own wallet. Good, he wasn’t sure if was supposed to be paying for them both and he didn’t want to make it awkward because he didn’t exactly have a lot of cash on him at the moment. They left their money on the table and got out of their seats, there was a hint of sunlight beginning to peak over the tips of the trees.  
Peter clasped his hand  
“Do you wanna walk back to campus together?” he asked, Harley thought it was kinda silly question, why wouldn’t they walk back together, they’d walked here together, but he nodded.  
“Yeah, hopefully my roommate’s kicked whoever out of his bed by now.”  
“What are you going to do if he hasn’t?” Peter asks, as the slowly amble back the way they had come earlier, it felt different holding Peter’s hand in the not-quite sunlight versus the moonlight. Peter looked softer now, and Harley was sure it was because the buzz of the night was wearing off and he was tired. If he had a sleep schedule even slightly like Harley’s he probably didn’t sleep much on the regular.  
“Probably just nap in the hallway, or the library.” he says, it was what he usually did. Usually he’d spend the whole night in the library, then go to a diner and work on homework until noon, when his roommate was sure to be up and awake. Tonight though, it had been so sudden that Harley was lucky that he had even grabbed his phone and wallet, let alone think to grab textbooks and head to the library; it was mostly why he’d been walking aimlessly on campus on a Friday night.  
“That’s dumb, my roommate Ned is gone for the weekend, you can just sleep in my dorm.” Peter says, as he swings their arms, Harley can feel his heart quicken in his chest. But he merely nods  
“You don’t have-”  
“No c’mon. Sleeping in the hallway is kinda sad honestly. You can sleep in my dorm, it’s not a big deal.” Harley’s sure that it probably isn’t a huge deal, but he’s dumb and he wants to overthink that maybe Peter just doesn’t want to let the night end just yet. Or maybe he’s just a really nice guy who doesn’t want to have him sleep in the hallway of his dorm floor, which he knows is kinda sad.  
“What hall are you in?” Harley asks, as they walk past one of the more rundown dorm buildings, Peter flushes then and looks away. It’s the first time the entire time they’ve been together that Peter has looked embarrassed,  
“I live in Howard Hall,” Harley tries not to make it a huge deal, but everyone at their school knows that Howard Hall is the nicest dorm building on campus and probably in the state if they’re honest. Given it was named after the Howard Stark, it wasn’t that surprising, it was also almost impossible to get into the hall. They usually on reserved it for students who were legacy or really well off; it definitely wasn’t where Harley would have put Peter.  
“Oh, that’s neat.” Harley says, and he feels so dumb he wants to kick himself, he must sound like such an ass.  
“It’s not as nice as everyone makes it out to be, and honestly I’m only there because my Dad insisted.” Harley furrows his brow,  
“Your dad?” he asks, he’s sure that if Peter tells him his Dad’s name he won’t recognize it, because he doesn’t know anyone on this side of the country, but still, it can’t hurt to ask.  
“Uh yeah, uh Tony Stark,” Peter mumbles, Harley nods meanwhile he’s really glad that Peter’s not walking him to his dorm because that would be too embarrassing to face. Tony Stark’s son in Pound Hall? The idea alone is a scandal,  
“Peter Stark,” Harley says aloud finding the words sit a little odd on his tongue, Peter makes a face.  
“I still go by my other last name, Parker,” that name does ring a slight bell in Harley’s head but he doesn’t bring it up.  
“Parker sounds better than my last name,” he offers, and Peter looks up at him grateful.  
“Oh yeah, what’s so bad about Keener?” he supposes that if Peter has been looking for him at parties and knows his first name, it’s not surprising that he knows his last name too; it still makes his little heart skip in delight though.  
“It’s just a bit of a joke you know?” he rolls his eyes, as Peter leads them in the opposite direction Harley would normally take to get to his dorm. “Are you keener? You keen?” he asks, Peter rolls his eyes.  
“Oh you poor thing,” Peter says gripping onto Harley’s upper arm, Harley’s grateful he’s in for mechanics, because he knows there’s a bit of definition to his arms. He hopes that Peter doesn’t let go of his arm, because he really likes Peter touching him. He really likes Peter, which is dumb because they’ve really only met tonight, and half of that time they were both not sober. “I used to have this guy who would call me Penis Parker,” Harley barked out a laugh, he hadn’t meant to and he feels a little guilty.  
“I’m sorry, that’s”  
“That’s just high school,” Peter says, as they take another bend, there’s no one out which given the time Harley supposes isn’t that weird. It just seems quieter on upper campus than lower campus, Harley is sure there’s someone passed out in the grass outside his dorm hall, there’s usually at least one; and the group of stoners who like to linger into the early morning.  
Howard Hall doesn’t look that different from the rest of the dorm buildings, or any of the other buildings on campus honestly, but the second they enter the dorm hall, Harley can see the difference. The carpet in the hallway is white and plush, fluffier than the carpet in his hallway could have ever been, even when it was put in like eighty years ago. Peter leads him up a flight of stairs, the halls are kinda bare, plain white walls and wood doors. Peter stops in front of one, (2F, Harley tries to remember.) and lets go of Harley’s hand to pull out his keys; after what feels like an eternity, Peter gets the door open peeking his head around.  
“It’s a little messy,” Peter says, his face slightly flushed again, Harley wants to lean forward and kiss him but feels awkward to do it and only smiles.  
“Honestly who has a clean dorm?” he asks, and Peter lets out a little breath that sort of sounds like a laugh, he turns on the light and grabs Harley’s hand, pulling him in behind him. It’s not really messy, there’s a few t shirts and textbooks on the floor. In Harley’s smaller dorm, it would definitely classify more of mess, but there’s enough space in the room that it doesn’t look bad. Peter leaps forward, dropping Harley’s hand and going to scoop up the clothes and dump them in the closet, and then place the books on the desk between the two twin beds. Harley glance around, the room isn’t that much nicer than his, it’s mostly just bigger. There’s the same plush carpet in here as there was in the hall, and from the bit of the wall Harley can see between posters and pictures that the wall is still the plain white. Peter looks a little nervous now, having Harley here, behind closed doors, in his bedroom.  
“Uh, I’m gonna go to the bathroom and wash my face.” Peter looks over Harley “Do you want something to sleep in?” he asks, as he eyes Harley’s rumpled jeans, Harley doesn’t want to really sleep in his jeans, but he also doesn’t want to make things awkward- Peter is already moving over to the dresser at the end of the bed that Harley assumes must be his. He glances over at Harley  
“These will probably be short on you since you’re taller than me, but uh. You can change into that if you want,” he shoves a pair of faded grey sweatpants into his hands. He has other clothes bundled into his arms, and with an awkward but quick smile, he turns and heads out the door. Harley sighes, rubbing his face with his hand as he takes a seat on Peter’s bed; it smelled like him, the whole room did. Which made sense because well, it was Peter’s room; Harley looked up at the Star Wars posters that were plastered along the walls. Harley had similar ones in how own room back one, he looked down at the sweatpants in his hands. He should change before Peter gets back so he doesn’t have to worry about explaining why he was just standing around. He strips down quickly, he doesn;t think he’d really mind if Peter walked in on him changing, but still, it would be better if he didn’t have to deal with the awkwardness of the whole thing.  
The sweatpants are too short on him, they reach mid calf on him, and he’s sure they’re supposed to at least reach his ankles, it does make him smile at the idea of them on Peter, they probably pool over his feet just a tad.  
Harley moves to fold his jeans up, and as he leans down he catches a whiff of his t shirt, it doesn’t smell bad, but like stale smoke and old alcohol, without thinking he goes to pull it off, he usually sleeps shirtless anyways-when the door opens. Harley freezes, his arms up as he’d been in the middle of pulling the shirt off his head, his chest and stomach exposed. After being frozen for a second too long he pulls his shirt off the rest of the way, he thought it wasn’t possible for Peter look at cuter, but he was definitely wrong.  
His face is pink, rubbed clean of all the smudged makeup, and he looks small in the large white t shirt that says I survived my trip to New York and pink hello kitty pants. Harley smiles,  
“Nice pants,” Peter flushes rolling his eyes.  
“Whatever,” Harley can feel Peter’s eyes on him as he turns around to place his t shirt on top of his jeans, and checks his phone quickly.  
“If you want to take my bed, I can sleep in Ned’s.” Peter offers, as he scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, Harley’s heart falters. He won’t lie, he was really hoping that Peter would share a bed with him. He wanted to wake up wrapped up in the smaller boy, and plus he was sure they wouldn’t go to sleep right away if they were in the same bed and that was totally okay with Harley Anything Peter wanted was okay with Harley.  
“Uh, if you want. I mean I can sleep wherever, if you’d rather sleep in your own bed.” Peter bites his lip,  
“We could share, if you wanted.” his brown eyes look so hopeful Harley has to resist the urge to jump him then and there. Of course that’s what he wanted, how could it not be so obvious?  
“That’s fine with me, unless you’re a blanket hog,” Harley says, Peter rolls his eyes.  
“Sometimes you just need a lot of blankets,” he says, as he pulls back the covers on his bed. Harley surprising himself, climbs in first, Peter reaches for the light switch before sliding in next to him, his shoulder pressing into Harley’s. Harley rolls onto his side, facing Peter who is laying on his back.  
“I don’t usually bring people home on the first date,” Peter whispers, Harley wants so badly to kiss him, he’s not sure what’s holding him back.  
“I don’t usually go home with people on the first date either,” Harley whispers back, and Peter laughs, he shifts, rolling so he’s on his side as well, their noses a finger’s breadth apart.  
“I don’t think this has been a very normal first date,” Peter says, Harley knows he could do it. He’s positive that if he leaned in just the slightest bit, Peter wouldn’t object. He doesn’t though, he does shift slightly, bumping his nose into Peter’s, Peter must take it as a sign to lean in though, because he does. It’s sloppier kissing laying like this, because they’re both tired, it still sets Harley’s body on fire with excitement. When they pull apart he has a hard time opening his eyes again, the night seeming to finally catch up with him. Peter presses his lips lightly to the tip of his nose.  
“I think this is the best first date,” Harley whispers, and he can feel Peter smiling into his shoulder, Harley smiles, insanely happy with the way this story is playing out.


	3. Bad Directions and Important Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter wants to take a late night drive and Harley's got some angst.

Harley was pretty sure he was doing enough spontaneous things in this past month then he ever had in the past eighteen years. He looked up at the dark dorm building in front of him, as Peter came bounding the walk way. He looked even more adorable in the moonlight, then again, to Harley, Peter just always looked good. He grinned when he saw Harley’s car, sliding into the passenger seat grinning at him.  
“So I was thinking that we could go Salem,” Peter says as he grins over at Harley, he raises an eyebrow at the boy beside him.  
“Salem, we should just drive to Salem in the middle of a Wednesday night?” Harley asks, Peter nods, and there’s small drops of water that fall from his head, it’s not raining, thankfully, but Peter must have just showered. He smells fresh, and looks clean and baby faced, his hair curled and dripping a little. Harley wants to grab him and wrap him in a blanket, but Peter the little shit he is, is pulling up directions on his phone.  
“Ned and I have been talking about going, but he’s going with Betty, that’s his girlfriend, and their parents. So I thought we could go,”  
“But Peter, there’s not going to be anything open right now. It’s already 11:30,” Harley tries to reason, Peter merely shrugs.  
“C’mon late night road trips are the best,” Harley shakes his head, but he’s smiling. How can he not? He can’t help himself around Peter, most of the time he doesn’t want to. Peter is like a breath of fresh air in the depressing monotony of Harley’s life, the new limited edition flavor that Harley is going to binge until he hates it, and desperately wishes for it come back when it leaves. Besides, he won’t admit it aloud, because it’s too soon to say, but Harley’s already desperately in love with Peter.  
“Okay, okay. Fine, we’re going to Salem, we’re going to be possessed by old with spirits, and they’re going to make a horror movie about us.” Peter laughs, his button nose scrunching up.  
“You’re the best Princess,” Peter says as he places a feather light kiss on Harley’s cheek bone as he starts the car back up. Peter’s back on his phone when Harley dares to glance back over at him,  
“You’re going to get cold,” Harley says, as he looks at Peter in his thin t-shirt and sweatpants, Peter looked down at himself.  
“Hm, you’ll have to give me your sweater.” he said, a cocky little smile crossing his normally angelic features. Harley rolled his eyes, and leaned to grab something from the backseat.  
“Is this a letterman’s jacket? Princess did you used to play football?”  
“Baseball actually, and yes it was my letterman’s jacket.” Harley can feel Peter’s eyes on him, and he knows he’s grinning.  
“Damn baby, that’s hot.” Harley coughs, and glances over to see Peter slipping on the jacket. It’s too big on him, they’re probably a size or two apart, and Harley’s arms are far longer than Peters. Harley almost wants to cry looking at Peter, burgundy and black colors of his school contrast so nicely with Peter’s pale skin. Harley’s not much of an artist, but he’s pretty sure if he painted a picture of Peter right now, his damp hair and bunched sleeves, he’d win an award. People won awards for their paintings right?  
“I don’t think it’s impressive as playing football,”  
“I wouldn’t know, I’m horrible at sports.” Harley grins  
“That I can believe,” he sighs as he pulls out of the parking lot,  
“How long did you play?”  
“Since middle school, to my senior year.”  
“Dedicated, I like that in a guy.” Peter says, and Harley can feel himself flush. They hadn’t really said what they were doing, this thing, this energy was between them. Harley knew that Peter had felt it just as he had the night they had officially met. The night of the party, they hadn’t really kissed since then. They’d hung out plenty, constantly meeting up to studying and go grocery shopping together. Some nights they’d get together and watch movies together and Peter would fall asleep on his shoulder, and when they movie was over he’d wake up and Harley would go back to his dorm.  
Harley was lost, and far too awkward to say anything, but even then he wasn’t sure what to say when Peter called him baby and princess. Or when he flirted with him in general.  
“It was just something to do, there’s not a lot in Rose Hill.”  
“I think I would love to live in a small town,” Harley laughed as he glanced over at Peter, who was already looking at him. Harley flushed,  
“I’m pretty sure you’d hate it, you’re a city boy through and through darlin’.” he looked away quickly, he hadn’t meant for the nickname to slip out of his mouth, he looks over, pretending to be checking the street for traffic so he can glance at Peter. He’s looking down at his phone, smiling to himself, the tips of his ears bright pink.  
“I could totally live in a small town,”  
“If that’s what you need to tell yourself, doll. No where the hell am I going?” he asks, he’s pretty sure Peter is rubbing off on him, since he’s not usually one for nicknames, and definitely not one to be so blunt, or forward. Whatever, he’s not usually like this; then again he’s also not usually the type to kiss pretty boys in makeup at parties either and if he hadn’t done that he wouldn’t even be talking to Peter in his car in the middle of the night right now.  
“Oh uh right, left, you’re taking a left here.” Harley follows his directions letting them fall into a slightly awkward silence.  
“So what’s on the agenda tonight then?” Harley asks, he raises an eyebrow though he keeps his eyes on the road. It’s mostly empty, it is a Wednesday night so he’s not too surprised; still Harley’s a careful driver and he’s sure it’s going to rain any second. There’s rumbles from the dark sky above them and the moonlight that was casting pretty shadows on Peter’s face is slowly getting hidden by the clouds.  
“I honestly don’t know, I just wanted out of my dorm room.”  
“We could have went to my room, or to a diner or something.” Peter shrugs, Harley catches it as he makes a turn,  
“I thought we could use a change of pace, try something different.” Peter merely says,  
“And that, sweetheart is why you could never live in a small town. You’d get too bored,”  
“Well if you were in the small town I’d never get bored,”  
“You expect me to constantly entertain you?” Harley asks, he’s mostly teasing.  
“I didn’t mean that,”  
“I wasn’t-”  
“I like your company,” Peter says Harley takes a second to glance over at him, Peter’s facing away from him, looking out the window, their eyes meet briefly in his reflection cast from the street lights. Harley looks away,  
“I like your company too,” Harley says, as he looks back at the road, Peter doesn’t say anything but Harley can tell he’s satisfied with his response. They ride in silence, with Peter only giving directions when his phone prompts him too, or Harley asks. It’s not too bad, they operate well in silence for the most part, they do it when they’re studying, or okay honestly they’re almost never quiet. Harley’s pretty sure “quiet” isn’t even in Peter’s vocabulary, he’s always making some sound, some movement, something to fill space around him.  
Harley starts to freak out then, he knows it’s dumb, because they’re not actually dating so it’s not like Peter can break up with him. If he didn’t want to hang out anymore, he’d just say that right? He’s being dumb, Peter literally just said he liked his company,  
“You missed the turn,” Peter speaks up beside him, Harley looks up from the road, glancing at Peter and then the signs along the road.  
“Shit, you’re right. I’ll just turn around at the next exit.” Peter didn’t say anything, and they fall into another bout of silence.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
They were lost, because Harley had been so stupidly stuck in his head and had missed his turn.  
“Any idea on how to get there?”  
“My phone is honestly just about dead,” Peter says as he looks up at Harley, they’re parked in a gas station parking lot, huddled together to conserve some of their heat. It’s not like Harley doesn’t have gas in his car, but he doesn’t have a lot of cash on him, he hadn’t been expecting a trip when he had picked Peter up so he’d only brought a twenty and he desperately needed coffee. Harley digs his out of his pocket, turning on the screen, it flickers off right away.  
“You really need a new phone Princess,”  
“I need money to get a new phone,” Harley says, and Peter sighs.  
“Well we could get a map in the gas station,” Peter offers  
“It looks like we’re not going to have much other choice,” Harley says running his hands through his hair, Peter puts a hand on his shoulder.  
“Sorry I dragged us out here tonight, I’m sure you’ve got class in the morning.”  
“Dude I’m the idiot that missed the turn, it’s my fault we’re lost.” Peter looks like he wants to argue but Harley’s already continuing. “Are you cold? I can turn the car on if you want?” he’s reaching for the keys when Peter grabs his hand.  
“We can just go home if you want, we don’t have to go to Salem. I was being dumb, and impuslive.”  
‘Peter-” Harley has to admit he’s avoided saying his name out loud, he’s definitely said it out loud, to his roommate, to himself late at night, more times then he’d like to admit. He knows if he says Peter’s name out loud, to Peter, he’ll be able to tell how far gone he is. How much he wants this, whatever the hell all of these hang outs and awkward pauses and long glances are. How much he wants Peter, he’s right of course because Peter looks up at him, his pretty brown eyes wide. His pink lips parted just barely, there’s a sound that comes from the back of Peter’s throat, a whine almost. Harley isn’t even sure what he was planning on saying, now that Peter’s attention is so fixated on him. He opens his mouth and closes it again, looking forward as the streams of rain that are now pouring down on his car get louder. He grabs the steering wheel tightly, he’s sure his knuckles are white if he were to glance down at them.  
“Harley,” Peter says, it’s not a question, more of a breath; a hope, a whisper. It’s all the encouragement that Harley didn’t realize that he needed. He turns to Peter, operating on instinct, on something else, that’s telling him to just kiss the damn beautiful boy who is sitting there, right beside him.  
He does, and Peter pulls him closer and runs his hands through his curls; they only pull away because they can’t breathe and because Peter is giggling into his hands like a little kid.  
“What’s so funny?” Harley isn’t mad, he’s leaning his head against his window, the glass cool under his skin. It feels nice, he’s sure his whole face is red; if Peter’s own face is anything to go off of.  
“I dragged you an hour away from school to get up the courage to ask you to be my boyfriend and then you kiss me in your car while it’s raining.” he leans forward, brushing his nose against Harley’s.  
“How are you so fucking perfect?” Harley’s brain is short circuiting to come up with an actual response, he swallows and sort of bobs his head, bumping his nose into Peter’s, their lips brush against each other’s.  
“Why’d you drag me out in the middle of the night?” Harley asks, his lips are a feather’s breath away from Peter’s. Peter leans forward kissing the tip of his nose before pulling away, settling in his seat.  
“I wanted to do something cute, not all of us can be as smooth as you Princess,” Harley rolls his eyes  
“If I was smooth, I would have asked you out for real already.” he says, as he runs his hand through his hair. Peter rolls his eyes,  
“So you’re not even smooth on purpose,”  
“I don’t know how you ever got the idea of me being smooth,”  
“Maybe not smooth, but you did make out with me at a party. Then stayed the night in the same bed as me at my dorm room, all while saying that was a date.”  
“I, I was kinda drunk.” Peter shakes his head  
“You weren’t, I was,” he pauses his face flushing “I was watching you at the party. I know you had like two drinks, and if you were a baseball player in a small Tennessee town; you’ve gone to better parties then one thrown by rich hipster kids.”  
“Aren’t you a rich hipster?” Harley asks, deflecting the question of his sobriety, Peter scoffs  
“I’m not a rich hipster, I’m a rich nerd, there’s a difference between the two” it’s Harley’s turn to roll his eyes then.  
“Okay sweetheart,”  
“You’re a smooth gentleman,” Peter says his fingers knotting themselves together, Harley reaches over and touches his knuckles lightly.  
“I’m not a gentleman,” he argues, but it’s light “I’m just dumb, and didn’t think you wanted me to kiss you again.” Peter rolls his eyes.  
“All I wanted was for you to kiss me again, why do you think I was always texting you? Asking you over? All the times I pretended to fall asleep during our movie nights?”  
“You pretended to fall asleep during our movie nights?” Peter flushes  
“I-uh, no.” he turns to face the window.  
“You didn’t have to drag me out to the middle of nowhere to ask me out you know,”  
“Well that’s good to know. I’ll keep that in mind the next time I want to ask you something.”  
“But you haven’t asked me anything.” Peter whines then  
“I thought me saying it was enough,”  
“But you didn’t ask,” Harley counters, he’s not sure what’s gotten into him. He’s never like this, he hasn’t been like this with anyone before. This free, this open, this loud and teasing, fuck he hasn’t been this comfortable around another person since Abby. The thought of her name makes his heart twist in his chest, but then there’s Peter, Peter who is leaning over to be closer to him again, his pink lips pouting.  
“Harley Francis Keener, would you please do me the honor of asking me to be your boyfriend?” Peter asks, Harley laughs leaning forward to kiss Peter. It feels warm in the car, despite the chilled windows and the rain pounding down around them.  
“Peter, sweetheart, doll, darlin’ please be my boyfriend,” Peter grinds against his mouth, his eyes falling closed as he connects their lips.  
“About fucking time, jessus.”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
They don’t get home until sometime after three , it had taken them a good forty-five minutes to finally leave the gas station, too busy giggling and smiling and well, kissing to want to leave. They did have class in the morning though so they did eventually buy a map and Peter horribly navigated them back. (Next time, Harley decides after Peter tells him to take the third wrong turn in a row, he’s going to make Peter drive and he’s going to navigate. Or he’ll navigate and drive.) They do finally make it though, and as Harley pulls up to his dorm building he’s exhausted and but he knows he’s not going to be able to sleep when he gets back to his dorm. Peter looks over at him, grinning;  
“Do you want to come up?”  
“Isn’t Ned home? Plus it’s late, I don’t want to stick around to watch a movie just to drive back to my dorm later.” Harley feels bad for admitting it, but it’s true. Peter frowns  
“Is your roommate home?”  
“Tyler? No, he’s dog sitting for one of the upperclassmen in his study group. He’s gone all week,”  
“I could grab my stuff and we could go back to your dorm?” Harley feels his stomach knot slightly, Harley’s dorm isn’t as nice as Peter’s. In fact there’s nothing that Harley has that is as nice as Peter’s, besides Peter himself, but Harley isn’t sure if that counts. Peter’s looking at him hopefully, his brown eyes reminiscent of a puppy. Harley leans over the middle console to kiss him, already knowing he would say yes.  
“Yeah, yeah you can come home with me.”  
“Jeez, moving a little fast there Keener?” Harley rolls his eyes  
“Go get your stuff sweetheart,” Peter presses a wet kiss on his cheek, and dashes out of the car. Harley sighes, fighting the smile that spreads across his face.  
How the fuck did he get a guy like Peter to be his boyfriend? It’s an amazing feat, if he had more friends, or any friends in general, he’d call them up and brag. He doesn’t though, the only person he wants to tell is Abby, and she’s not here. He shoves the thought away, he’s allowed to be happy right now, he can bask in this feeling, the feeling of Peter and all the light he brings without having to feel sad or guilty.  
God, he really did get lucky with Peter, not just lucky, blessed, honest to god blessed. He grins when Peter comes bounding back towards him, still in his sweatpants and Harley’s too big letterman’s jacket, his backpack slung over his shoulder. He’s breathing a little heavily, Harley figures he must have run up and down the stairs. He probably woke up poor Ned, but then Peter leans in to kiss him and he can’t spare Peter’s roommate another thought.  
Because, god Peter is like the sun and the moon and everything beautiful all rolled up into one and he’s so lost, so in love with this piece of art of a boy. Harley kisses the tip of his button nose,  
“You’re breathtaking,” he whispers, he’s close enough to Peter that he can feel him flush, but he doesn’t argue.  
“Smooth Princess, smooth.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is again based off the tumblr prompt from parnker-prompts!  
This weeks was road trips/ driving. This one was one that was a little harder to put together, I actually wrote it halfway and decided I hated what I started writing and wrote this instead! More information on the boys, as I do mention Harley's sister a few times! I have an actual idea of the AU this is set in now, but it will be revealed in the later weeks!


End file.
